UGANDA: President Yoweri Museveni yesterday called on opposition leaders in Uganda to accept the results of elections that extended his 20-year grip on power.
The final count, released on Saturday, gave the former rebel leader 59 per cent of the vote. Dr Kizza Besigye, who leads the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), amassed 37 per cent.
International observers concluded that polling day was broadly free of rigging but have criticised Mr Museveni's National Resistance Movement for dominating state-run media and using state machinery to gain an advantage.
Mr Museveni (62), speaking at his ranch some four hours drive from the capital Kampala, urged opposition leaders to prevent violence. "The Forum for Democratic Change were threatening to cause havoc if they did not win. But you saw yesterday: they tried, they couldn't - it's too late for that type of game."
Yesterday was calm following a night of sporadic violence around the FDC headquarters. Police used tear gas to disperse an angry crowd that threw stones at government supporters.
Opponents say the president, who comes from a rural cattle-keeping family, has become yet another autocratic African "Big Man" since seizing power in 1986.
Western donors once praised Mr Museveni as the leader of a new generation of African statesmen. He promised to reintroduce democratic elections and liberalise an economy ravaged by the bloody regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
But the donors were disappointed last year when parliament abolished term limits that would have ended his presidency at this election.
Several, including Ireland, cut millions of dollars in aid when Dr Besigye (49) was detained on treason and rape charges last November. The FDC leader was Mr Museveni's doctor in the bush war, but the two have not spoken to each other in years.
Dr Besigye, in his first comments after the results, said the election had been conducted in an illegal manner.
Speaking to journalists in the garden of his Kampala residence, he said guidelines on tallying votes had not been followed and that his supporters faced intimidation during the run-up to polling.
"The FDC has taken a decision to reject the results announced by the electoral commission and to say that we are still gathering our own information which we hope to have complete in another day or so," he said as jubilant Museveni supporters in the street outside threatened to drown out his words.
"We shall decide on further actions once we have the information that we need." A stream of diplomats visited his house during the weekend in an attempt to prevent him sending his followers on to the streets.
Yesterday US charge d'affaires William Fitzgerald released a statement urging all Ugandans to express their views about the vote "peacefully and lawfully".